2 July 2010 -- The OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs is now completing its work on two transfer pricing projects which the OECD Council will be asked to approve by the end of July in the form of revisions to the Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations (TPG):  its  on the Transfer Pricing Aspects of Business Restructuring.

 

In these two projects, transfer pricing issues pertaining to intangibles were identified as a key area of concern to governments and taxpayers, due to insufficient international guidance in particular on the definition, identification and valuation of intangibles for transfer pricing purposes.

 

OECD guidance on the transfer pricing aspects of intangibles is currently found in the TPG, especially in Chapters VI and VIII. Further and updated guidance will be available in the revised Chapters I-III of the TPG and in the final report on the Transfer Pricing Aspects of Business Restructuring once those are approved by the Council and publicly released. Intangibles are also addressed in the July 2008 Report on the Attribution of Profits to Permanent Establishments and in the Commentary on Article 12 of the Model Tax Convention.

 

The OECD is now considering starting a new project on the Transfer Pricing Aspects of Intangibles which could result in a revision of Chapters VI and VIII of the TPG. Working Party No. 6 of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs is still at the stage of scoping such a possible new project and would welcome the views of interested parties on:

• What they see as the most significant issues encountered in practice in relation to the transfer pricing aspects of intangibles;
• What shortfalls, if any, they identify in the existing OECD guidance;
• What the areas are in which they believe the OECD could usefully do further work; and
• What they believe the format of the final output of the OECD work should be.

 

Comments should be sent before 15 September 2010 in Word format to Jeffrey Owens, Director, CTPA (jeffrey.owens@oecd.org).

 

Unless otherwise indicated by the commentators at the time of submission, the contributions received may be posted on the OECD Internet site.

 

Selected business commentators will be invited to meet with Working Party No. 6 on 9th November 2010 in Paris.